Equipment for mounting electronic components is generally classified into two categories, a rotary-head type apparatus (hereinafter cited as "rotary-head type") as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H04-94199, etc., and an X-Y table type apparatus (hereinafter cited as "X-Y table type") as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. H03-289197, etc.
The rotary-head type is characterized most by a high-speed operation as it loads electronic components in a part feeder onto a substrate on an X-Y table successively while rotating a plurality of transfer heads around a rotary head. The X-Y table type mounts electronic parts in a part feeder onto a substrate while moving a transfer head horizontally in X and Y directions, and it has such advantages that it can mount electronic components of various kinds in a wide variety of shapes and dimensions onto the substrate, and that its structure is simpler and less costly than the rotary-head type. However, the X-Y table type suffers from low productivity since its mounting speed is considerably slower than the rotary-head type.
On the other hand, because the rotary-head type drives the transfer head to move up and down while rotating it around the rotary head and the part feeder to repeat a movement at high speed toward a predetermined pick-up location, it has many problems such as excessive vibration and noise in the entire apparatus, being liable to repeat mounting errors, e.g., pick-up errors and loading errors of the electronic components, and an intricacy of the structure, thereby making the apparatus costly and requiring much labor for its maintenance.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide equipment and a method for mounting electronic components at high speed with high reliability so as to obviate the problems of the rotary-head type apparatus and the X-Y table type apparatus.